You want to lose weight.  So you clean up your diet and you start to exercise.  This sounds like a good plan.

But let me ask you- how did you get to where you are now?  Are you an emotional eater?  Are you someone who does not exercise regularly and lack motivation?

Many people start on a weight loss journey focused on temporary change.  “If I go on a diet, I can lose the weight”.  You have all heard this before.

But let’s look at from an attraction point of view.

If you focus on weight loss, you set up a resistance to food, exercise and a lifestyle change.  Because you are only focused on a number and not the behavior, the thoughts, or the feelings associated with the weight you gained.

As you clean up your diet and exercise more, you may lose the weight you want.  But because you never addressed the beliefs or feelings around how you live, eat and exercise, 9 times out of 10 you gain the weight back.

Problem #1: Temporary change.  You want fast weight loss, you change lots of things.  Then you feel deprived because it was too much change too soon, you consider it a diet and then you rebel and “celebrate” once you have reached your goal-which usually starts the habits and patterns that have you gain the weight right back.

Solution: Clean up your life, not just your diet.  Start to “think thin” like we do on our 6 Week Beach Body Program.  Download the 4 week plan of Fit 2 Love and REALLY do the exercises especially around the food.  Make one change every month so you make it part of your daily or weekly routine.  Post a comment on this blog so I can give you more specific action steps to implement into your life.  I AM a problem solver so let me help you!

Problem #2: Delaying your happiness.  “I’ll only be happy when I lose 10 pounds”.  This statement goes against your inner being and your higher self so your body and spirit say “ then you will never be happy “  and your body says “ if you can’t love me the way I am, then I am NOT changing for you!”  Your “then” never comes.  There is always something else.  You set yourself up to fail IMMEDIATELY and delay your happiness and results in the process.  Accepting yourself where you are, as you are, right now is the ONLY way to make a real shift.  Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time until you and your body go back to the exact state it was in before or worse.

Solution: Find appreciation with your body and health right now. When you do that, you release resistance and your body will shift ad change.  Your body will appreciate the love and positive attention and respond JUST like a person.  You can download the free Fit 2 Love 4 Week Plan and start changing your relationship with your body and practice being happy NOW.  Let’s face it, one of the only reasons you want to lose weight in the first place is because you THINK you will be happy once you get it.  So pretend you have it now and stop delaying the HAPPY PART!  It gets you no where to hold your ground of unhappiness.  You practice that and that’s what you are good at.  So when you get to “happy”, you might not stay there long because you are too good at “unhappy”.

**What you lose, you can find. Don’t concentrate on loss but on transformation and releasing.**

JJ Flizanes is the author of Fit 2 Love: How to Get Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually Fit to Attract the Love of Your Life and Knack Absolute Abs: Routines for a Fit and Firm Core.  She was named best personal trainer in Los Angeles for 2007 by Elite Traveler Magazine and is the Director of Invisible Fitness. JJ’s passion is helping men and women get results with their body and love on the outside as well as the inside. View JJ on video on YouTube or visit her blog at http://www.jjflizanes.com.

Just a quick check-in.  For me this detox has been tough.  I think that the detox of fruits, veggies and nuts would have been fine had I not had all of the additional stressors the past two days.  I’m PMSing so my body is craving meat meat meat! Like no one’s business and I’ve had major work stressors come up.

Oddly enough, I’m doin’ pretty damn good besides the fact that all of my co-workers looked like eggs because all I can think about is the hard boiled eggs that I get to eat tomorrow morning. Ok OK! I cheated and had two tonight! Geesh-you got it outta me!

That’s an interesting thing though that my cravings have shifted in, literally, less than 48 hours from that of sugary things to protein.  Good start!

I was so overwhelmed with stress that I finally did what JJ has been telling me to do which is step back and let some things go.  I realized that I can’t control everything and I  don’t know if it’s because I’m exhausted or what but I give! UNCLE!  Today I just let things go and released a lot. I can’t tell you how it happened or what I did to make it happen. Hypnosis?  It was just a thought and then my body followed and I felt much lighter.

On the dating front  HE IS NOT THE DOG KILLER! YEAAAA!!!!  We have been emailing and he says he’s going to call tomorrow. We’ll see.

Nighty-night.

I started training her about a year ago, right before her 90th birthday.  I was amazed at her then and even more so now.

After being totally inspired, I asked if I could film her so I could share her story and energy with my clients and friends. The few questions I asked back then were answered brilliantly, but after knowing and training her for a year, I have discovered a few pieces to Dorothy’s success that I want to share.

But first, watch the video below from last year of Dorothy if you have not seen it to witness her energy.  A still picture does not do her justice.  This woman is a 30 year old inside a body that chronologically is 91, but operates more like 50.

Does she really kickbox?  Yes, but that was a harder picture to get since I have to hold the kick pad at the same time!

She has often completed 3 sets of 25-30 pushups at an angle or on her knees, she has been recently doing jumping jacks (because I felt that it was important for her to feel confident in her ability to leave the floor and work on balance and recovery) and she has been perfecting her front and side kicks.

Why is Dorothy so amazing at 91 years old? Here is what I think:

1. She works full time and she loves what she does. She has a passion. Most people I see doing well as they age LIVE their passion.

2. She keeps active- she obviously is exercising but the fact that she is still working full time means she is up and around more often then not.

3. She is still learning- Dorothy is learning and playing bridge and taking Spanish lessons to keep her brain active. The term “Grumpy old men” is easy to see why it applies when the majority of aging people stop wanting to learn and grow. Even at 91, she still looks for things to learn. She doesn’t believe or act as if she knows best even though she has lived closer to 100 years than anyone I know!

4.Her spiritual beliefs are very strong and she practices living from a broader perspective. She has had a hard life and could very easily complain and hold onto anger and resentment. But she has worked to release the “dark” energy from her past and live in love and freedom. This is the biggest key in my opinion.

From my spiritual perspective, she does not have a lot of resistance. By resistance, I mean she does not say NO to many things or hold onto FEAR about the future. I see this as the biggest lesson I can learn from Dorothy on how to age with grace and happiness instead of fear, disappointment, and negativity.

5. She is grateful- every time I see her, she has a smile on her face and has something to be grateful for. This energy can not help but attract health and vitality!

Maybe one day, I can get her to appear and speak to a group of my clients and friends. I would love to tour her around and help inspire everyone to age with happiness and vitality. YOU have a choice.

Every choice you make today effects your future-it’s never to late to choose a better path for your mind, body and spirit that help you age with grace and joy.

I introduced her to my Mother and Grandmother in law to inspire us all to be thriving at 90! I want those I love to be around as long as possible in a healthy way!

Want to age like Dorothy? I may be able to help. Let me know 800 571 5722

I wanted to share with you WHY and HOW you can lose weight by changing the way you THINK.

For some of you , the idea of hypnosis is being told to act like a chicken.  Wrong.

This article was written by Susan French, C.Ht.

Hypnosis is a powerful tool but exactly HOW does it work? The real magic is that hypnosis works as both a “magic wand” and as a “snowball gathering snow.”

Let’s take a look at each separately and then how they work together.

The magic-wand effect is when you have a hypnosis session and your issue is solved instantly and without further effort. Magic!

The snowball effect is what you experience with several hypnosis sessions, in which each session reinforces and enhances the relief created by previous sessions.

The reality is that both effects create permanent change. Hypnosis creates the initial change. Reinforcement ensures that the change lasts.

Reinforcement occurs when you regularly use a reinforcement CD made by your hypnotherapist, induce self-hypnosis, or through continued subsequent sessions with your hypnotherapist. Your hypnotherapist guides you in creating the initial change and reinforcing it, thereby accomplishing your goal of permanent, positive change.

Now, let’s look at it a little more closely.

We use hypnosis to change responses and behaviors. All responses and behaviors are learned. All that hypnosis really does is cause very rapid learning (or relearning) to take place so that new responses and behaviors become automatic.

Hypnosis allows this rapid learning to occur by interrupting the conscious, critical factor of the mind/brain. For reasons of survival, the critical factor of the mind/brain slows down the learning process. However, when those initial survival reasons are no longer necessary, it makes sense to interrupt or bypass the critical factor, which is precisely what hypnosis does – painlessly, safely, and effectively.

We know that no learning is INSTANT. You didn’t learn to ride a bike instantly. You didn’t learn to speak instantly. You didn’t learn to read or write instantly. You were taught the initial ideas and methods and those ideas were repeatedly reinforced until they become automatic.

Hypnosis allows that learning or relearning to happen more rapidly. However, as with any learning process, it needs to be reinforced. Thus, hypnosis is both a “magic wand” and a “snowball gathering snow.”

Let’s take a look at Joanna’s experience to get a better idea of exactly how hypnosis DOES work:

Joanna was sitting in the waiting room at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute. She was waiting for her first hypnotherapy appointment. She was desperate to lose weight. She had lost and gained at least three hundred pounds in her thirty-two years. Now, here she was, seventy pounds overweight again. She had tried everything.

She had heard some say that hypnosis could be like a magic wand. She had heard others say it didn’t work at all. Her best friend Martha had just lost fifty-five pounds using hypnosis. She said it was easy and it worked, but that Joanna would have to do her part too. Would it work for her?

If this reminds you of your own questions about weight loss and hypnosis, keep reading.

We can call the habit of overeating a food addiction, compulsive overeating, or a self-destructive habit. Whatever we call it, though, once that kind of behavior takes control, you will need to unlearn old, destructive behaviors and relearn new, constructive ones.

Joanna followed through with her hypnosis for weight loss. She learned the reasons she ate for comfort and she altered those behaviors. She learned that eating good, fueling foods were essential, and she incorporated those ideas into her daily life. She also learned that she needed to move her body more. Exercise became her oasis. It became her “me-time” every day.

Joanna lost her seventy pounds easily and happily and has maintained her new weight because she created a new relationship with food, with her body, and with life itself. That was five years ago.

Hypnosis makes the process of transforming counterproductive behaviors to productive behaviors easy, effective, and empowering. Any behavior that does not serve your goals and dreams can be changed using hypnosis.

Hypnosis accelerates your learning process so that what might have taken you twenty years to “learn” can be restructured in four to six sessions.

Hypnosis is being used in major medical institutions, such as, Harvard Medical School, UCLA, Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital, and many burn centers, to ease pain, fear, and treatment [, and accelerate healing] for their patients.

Hypnosis is approved by, both, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) for Complementary and Alternative Medical Treatment and as an adjunct to traditional treatments.

The moral of this story is this: if you are wondering if hypnosis is a magic wand or a cumulative change response (snowball effect), it is both!

If all else has failed and you are ready and committed to achieving your goals, it is time to try hypnosis. It works!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That’s why we use it as the foundation for changing your MIND on the 6 Week Beach Body Program.  We want you to have long lasting change, not temporary results!

Here are a few testimonials!

I think I have watched this video ten times already-or more.

I play it for every client I see who I think needs to hear it- which is most of them!

Why I love this video by Marianne Williamson is because she focuses on how we START our day. It’s about having intention, flow, a stable base coming from love, breath, and readiness VERSUS what most of us do (me included sometimes) which is REACT, REMEMBER, and REPEAT all the crap we did, thought and felt from the day before.  Especially when it’s negative.

It’s part of Law of Attraction as well.  I will give you a perfect example of how it can go very wrong.

Last week as I was getting ready for an early client, I noticed that one of our new towels was discolored.  I decided to get upset about it and write my husband a note- this was one of the FIRST  things I did to start my day on the way to the shower.

Since I started off focusing on something negative, the rest of the day went that way.  Traffic was awful and I was late for my first client.  On the way to my next appointment, I got off the wrong exit and turned the wrong way using up all of the spare time I had before my doctor appointment that I was going to use to get an oil change.  I had no more time because I used it up driving in the wrong direction!

Then at the doctor’s office, I had to wait. ( I HATE waiting when I was told I wouldn’t have to).  Anyway, you get the drift.  My day did turn around when I decided to get a $35, 75 min reflexology and massage around the corner from my last appointment of the day.  I had a coupon and I decided I needed some help with my energy shifting!

And it worked.

Most of my mornings, I start off by playing an appreciation game.  I intentionally verbally make a list with a partner what I appreciate and what I am excited about manifesting.  This is to create the positive energy and direct myself into that good feeling place. Or to redirect to a more general place if I happen to “not be feeling it” that day.

Most days, things flow well and I see clear evidence of my efforts in choosing to see the possibilities and stepping over the little things that could be bothersome- they aren’t worth my time.

This “bad” day is not the JJ typical day which is why I had to recall it and laugh.  I know better but now I am reminded how not being deliberate in my thoughts and focus can have me really frustrated!!

It’s all about HABITS.  What habits do you have and how do they support you or sabotage you?

What do you do first thing in the morning?

Do you turn on the TV to see what to worry about today?  Or do you read, meditate, exercise, journal, connect with your family, etc?

When Marianne talks about literally having more time when you meditate, it’s because you ground yourself into who you are FIRST, then you can choose how to process the information coming to you.

Without doing this, you allow your environment to dictate what and how you do and feel.  You become a victim and lose control.  It can be done very differently.

I invite you to change something about your morning routine and see how differently your day goes.  Or how you attract different, possibly better things.

Let me know how that goes.

If money was not the issue, would you take 2 days to go inside and make some shifts in your relationship with your body and love life? Have you been single too long, not able to find the right man?

Are you unhappy in your relationship and can’t seem to make it better? Do you yo-yo diet and sporadically exercise wishing it would just be easier?

Are you letting your body not being perfect stop you from dating or embracing the love that already exists around you?

When I was writing Fit 2 Love, married friends and colleagues of mine begged me to write the book for them. They wanted solutions on how to improve their relationships and lose weight at the same time.

However, I focused first on the single man or woman who wants to lose weight, feel better about their body and is searching for the love of their life because I have been there and I know that. But what I also know is that these principles can make ANY relationship better once you apply them-single or married. They have worked in my relationship as well as many others who have already applied them.

I have created the space for only 5 very lucky people to receive a scholarship to the Fit 2 Love Workshop which is selling for $397 but valued over $1000.  You may know someone who is unhappy with their body and wishing they could find love- I would encourage you to pass this onto them.  This weekend could change their life forever.

***DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS APRIL 20th*****

Click here to download the application and instructions

Are there better exercises for each of us to be doing?  Yes.

Are there more effective ways to change your body fat than some of the methods you are currently using?   Yes.

But the bottom line for a lot of us, is DOING IT and DOING IT CONSISTENTLY.

How do you do that?

Usually the most effective way to get it done is to pay for it.  Hire a trainer or a coach or join a group class.  I understand not all of us can do that however, but it really is the best choice to get moving and have some positive results.

The second is to SCHEDULE it.

Sounds simple, yes?  But even I have had an issue with this in the last 10 months.  I lost my workout partner last year ( she moved) and since then it has been hard to find someone else with a similar schedule, desire and fitness level to replace her.

Having a workout partner is great to keep you on track for just DOING the exercise.  Schedule it in your day, put it in your calendar, let others know you are UNAVAILABLE and then commit to it.

I really get bothered when fitness people want to tell the couch potato who hasn’t committed to ANY movement in months or even years, to go do HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING!!

Ah, Hello????

That MIGHT last a few weeks ( most likely not–unless they paid for it) and then that person reverts back to their old habits because they stepped TOO FAR out of their comfort zone too soon.

My best fitness advice is to DO something and DO IT OFTEN.  Once fitness becomes part of your regular life 2-5 times a week and you sustain it for longer than 3 months, THEN we can modify WHAT you are doing and stop wasting time throwing out options of things you are most likely NOT going to do for long.

Take out your pen and calendar, get ready to email a few friends and SCHEDULE yourself a workout date.  Have some fun why don’t you? 

My book comes out on Feb 9th- please be     sure to buy your copy from Amazon on that day and keep your order number.  I will send you the link to claim your free bonus gifts worth hundreds of dollars!

In the meantime, to wet your appetite, I thought I would share some sections from inside the book!

Here is the Table of Contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1: Your Body Blueprint: What does your current blueprint say about how others should treat you? The steps to creating a better blueprint to get the relationship you want.

Chapter 2: Manifesting My Husband in 3 Weeks: The deliberate steps I took to manifest my husband and what to avoid to make it work.

Chapter 3: A Man’s Point of View: My husband’s point of view of what my blueprint told him about me and what signals he got.

Chapter 4: Step 1: Clean the Slate: Take a few steps to clean out your body and mind. End patterns of bad relationships and rebuild a new one with yourself.

Chapter 5: Step 2: Sexual Fitness: What is sexual fitness? Why you workout is more important than how. Are you sexually fit? Learn how to change the effectiveness of your workout through a few simple steps.

Chapter 6: Step 3: A Food Love Affair: It’s not about calories. Eat high frequency foods that nurture your soul and your body.

Chapter 7: Step 4: Wear Sexy Underwear: Bring out your inner radiance and femininity by dressing for you. Other actions you can take to shine your beauty everyday.

Chapter 8: Step 5: Thank Your Lucky Stars: A simple shift in perspective can change your day and your life.

Chapter 9: Putting Yourself First: A man’s journey of finding the love of his life after deciding to put his health and wellness first.

Chapter 10: Mending the Wounds: A woman’s journey of overcoming an eating disordering to truly loving herself and what her husband thinks about it.

Chapter 11: Midlife Perspective Change: How your goals change when you see life from the end.

Chapter 12: Superficial to Success: Learn how the road to building a few million-dollar businesses can create the illusion of happiness.

Chapter 13: A Man’s Spiritual Journey: Facing the shadow part of yourself can unlock the real key to your heart. Learn how this man triumphed over his dark side.

Chapter 14: Your 4-Week Program: Follow this easy exercise, nutrition, and self-care process to transform the relationship you have with yourself, your body, and with others.

Resources: Books, products, workshops, websites, and resources for your ultimate self-care and success.

And a little more from inside:

Introduction

“Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.” Byron Katie

It’s a beautiful, warm, sunny day in Los Angeles, and I have just arrived at a local gym to train one of my clients. It’s business as usual as I walk in the door and head to the stretching area to meet my appointment, until I stop dead in my tracks and look around the room; I notice a strange energy in the air.

Today seems different.

As I look around the midsize gym, I see a few famous actors who are wearing their sunglasses while they workout. Celebrity sightings are common, and the locals know to leave them alone, but today, for some strange reason, I can’t stop staring at them.

Are they afraid that people will come up to them? Do they not realize that we know who they are and that they call more attention to themselves by wearing sunglasses in the gym? Or maybe, they secretly want to be noticed so they try to look cool, yet uninterested.

If they want attention, they are not alone.

Heavy breathing across the room from the trainers who are power lifting catches my attention. Intense physical work needs a greater amount of oxygen than a normal workout and maybe even some sound, but I am not the only one noticing that they are putting on a show. Heavy weights being thrown on the floor, lots of shouting and almost screaming fills the corner of the gym where the dumbbell rack resides.

As I look toward the machine circuit, I see a few female trainers wearing next to nothing. How does baring it all correlate to their knowledge and skill as a trainer? They look around the room to see who is checking them out, while my concern is for their client with the heavy weights in their hands. The female trainers seem more interested in the attention than being present and attentive.

The vibe in the air is so thick and uncomfortable; I can almost smell and taste it. What is it? Ah, yes, it is insecurity. You could step into almost any gym and witness this scene for yourself on any given day, but today is the day I can’t ignore it any longer. I can actually feel many people working out as if their life depended upon it. I can hear them saying to themselves, I have to look perfect or no one will love me. I have to look perfect or no one will hire me. I can sense competition, comparing, judgment, and fear. This is probably why I have not been training in gyms for a long time because the vibe makes me sad.

There are three things in life that people spend a great deal of time, money, and effort to achieve: love, health, and money. Are you single and looking for love? Do you desire a better relationship from your partner and even yourself? Do you struggle with weight loss and body issues? If you have said yes to just one of these questions, then you will be delighted because this book was created to help you achieve love and security through fitness and health.

The Love of Your Life is You

To love yourself means believing in your own worthiness, as well as caring for every facet of your life. Without loving yourself first, you set up a rollercoaster of dependency upon other people to make you feel good. Just like with any substance addiction, the search for love to fulfill us can spiral out of control and cause unnecessary heartache. There is another way.

There is no other set of words as perfect about self-love than the poem Our Deepest Fear, which inspires me to tears every time I read it. It’s by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles: (used with permission)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually,   who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the  world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel  insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to  make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people           permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Visit Invisible Fitness to get the reminder email notification when this book is available!

We have had the hottest 2-3 days here in LA ALL SUMMER LONG!  And thank god my schedule opened up so I could enjoy them!

We moved into this house in March of this year and I only remember 1 weekend at the end of March that felt hot enough to swim in our pool.

I have sat watching the pool all summer WAITING for these moments so I was super excited on Sunday when I got to finally go in the pool for pleasure.  I did make a brief appearance in the pool in June during one of the photo shoots for the book I just finished writing: Knack Absolute Abs: Routines for a Fit and Firm Core.  There were 3 water/pool shots so we did them here.

I was by myself, you know it’s football season so my husband was with his big flat screen TV cheering his favorite teams, so I decided to blast my favorite music while I enjoyed the pool.

Well since I always “car dance” to my music, I was finally able to DANCE full on, no holding back, like no one was watching for about an hour.  It was SO MUCH FUN AND FREEING!

I stuck my heart rate monitor on and decided this was the best workout I was going to get in this heat so I kept dancing and swimming until I was done.

Now that all seems sort of simple but here are some lessons I got really clear on:

1. I don’t dance like that all the time.  I ALLOWED myself the freedom to be as big and bold as I wanted and it was physically freeing and emotionally satisfying.  No one was watching (that I know of!) so I let myself be 100% free in my movement.  I also watched my reflection a bit in the sliding glass door and I move pretty well!  I liked the way I looked.
2. I had on music I LOVE so I was easily motivated to move to it.  I didn’t have to force myself into liking something or working out because I had to– I didn’t have to.
3. Sunday and Monday I did  the same thing and I was in a GREAT MOOD because of it.  And then I manifested something big……
4. I even went out dancing Monday night to a BRAND new salsa club that I have never been to before and KNEW NO ONE.  It was kinda scary to think  that I did not know ONE SINGLE PERSON so I was on my own and having to TRUST and ALLOW when dancing with all these new partners.  I have gotten so used to friends that I know their style and can sometimes anticipate.  This is fun but too comfortable sometimes.  I forget what it’s like to let someone lead me completely.

How many times a week do you do something you ABSOLUTELY LOVE that is good for you?  It’s like filling your heart and soul YOURSELF so that you are ready to serve others and are not looking for someone else to fill you up FOR YOU.

What I manifested was a call from ABC casting for Shark Tank.  I don’t know if I will get on the show but I submitted an application over 2 years ago and I am THRILLED that they kept it on file!!!!

All it took was 2-3 days of practicing joy.  Can’t wait to see what happens if I keep this up!

If you are inspired, I challenge you to do the same. Commit to going FULL OUT with something you love and take care you first.  Let me know what happens.

Here’s a review of each step. We covered #1 and #2 thus far.

1. Goal- Vision
2. Plan
3. Tools and Support
4. Progression
5. Joint Integrity

Tools and Support.  What do I mean by tools?  First off, ways to measure your progress would be where I would start.  That could be as simple as a tape measure to do some circumference readings and then body fat using the NAVY guidelines and website on line. http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy

When you step on the scale to see you have lost 5 pounds, you do not know where that  5 pounds came from.  It could be fat, water or muscle.  I think it’s very important to test body fat MORE than body weight because ideally you want to keep all your muscle, lose any extra water but concentrate on using the fat as energy so your percentage keeps reducing.

Where do you workout?  If you like going to the gym, they have plenty of tools there for you to use.  If going to the gym is something you would rather NOT do, you can have very similar (but cheaper) tools at home or in your office.  A ball, mat, tubing, free weights, etc.  These are all tools.

You body weight, if you know how to apply it and use it properly, is a tool as well.  My biggest delight is taking men off the machines, having them do a workout with body weight and show them where they are weak (or not using the muscles).  Don’t underestimate body weight- esp if you are tall, big boned or broad shouldered.

Now my favorite tool for cardio- a heart rate monitor!  Why?  I have heard other trainers talk about high intensity training and using RPE (rate of perceived exertion).  I love RPE but here is the thing with PERCEPTION- it’s skewed.

An athlete will push themselves hard because they are used to it.  A non athletic person will feel their body and maybe not push as hard but THINK they are working as hard as they can.  If your threshold has not been challenged and your comfort zones expanded then you might not be working hard enough to change your body to the next level.

I had a client once for many years who has trained with dozens of trainers.  When we started working, I trusted that she was pushed hard so her perception was accurate to her fitness level and capabilities.  I’d find her RPE of “8” (out of 10) for each exercise and train her there.  I’d ask her at the next session if she felt anything the next day or 2 days later.  She replied no for the first 2 months.

This boggled my mind.  So after getting to know her better, I decided to increase her weight beyond her comfort zone and showed her what a REAL “8” was supposed to feel like.  From there on, her fitness level changed and she got great results.

This example was using RPE with strength training so let’s get back to heart rate.

I had a man in his 70’s that is a super successful businessman.  Great guy, not in touch with his body at all. His perception was that he was working hard but could not FEEL when his body was in crisis mode.  Luckily, he had a heart rate monitor on and I could see that he was hovering at 170+ while on the floor!!!  This is very dangerous.

Without the monitor, I may have pushed him harder.  I am glad I did not because that could have ended very badly.  You need to know where you are regardless of what you are doing.  When your fitness level increases, the same activity does not get your heart rate up to the same level anymore.  This is good news—it means you are more fit.  AND it’s time to change the exercise or something about it to get back into your zone.

Let’s review my tool suggestions so far:

1. Tape measure
2. Body fat test
3. Equipment for exercising
4. Heart Rate monitor

There are more but by now you get the point.  Let’s look at support now.

1. Family member or friend to be accountable to
2. Trainer, Nutritionist, Doctor to be accountable to and to create your program
3. Having the house or office set up to reinforce your goals
4. Gathering with like minded people to keep you on track
5. Using hypnosis to change your mindset or therapy to breakthrough some patterns
6. A journal  to use every day
7. A rewards system set in place to celebrate each step of your progress
8. And more!

As you know, we offer most of these things on our 6 Week Beach Body Program- that now you can get in download form, the entire program for only 97$! If you need some tools and support, you might want to consider investing into YOU today and get a jumpstart on summer! http://www.6weekbeachbodyinabox.com

“I definitely can see how my new habits have taken root. This is the most fabulous part of the whole program–feeling that there is knowledge and confidence within myself now and creating life long changes for the better. I have lost a total of 14 pounds, 10 inches and I am now automatically making healthy choices– this program works!“

Cindy Browne, Cincinnati Ohio